A movie changed me, for good, on how to understand poverty.
Last night I watched a Hong Kong romantic movie called A Moment of Romance. It is more tragic than romantic. A handsome young man became an orphan right after he was born, as his mother, a prostitute at a ghetto, threw herself off a window after delivering her baby. Not surprisingly, she did not know who her baby's father was. His life in a way is a miracle. He grew up into a skillful motorcyclist and of course a royal gangster. During one mission, he kidnapped a young and rich girl. She fell in love with him, at first he tried to avoid her, but later accepted her. Their relationship then irritated her strong-willed mother, who requested police to arrest him. She made a deal with her mom, that police have to release him and she will go to Canada with her parents. On the day she is leaving, he fought for his brother who was killed by rivals and got seriously wounded. When he realized that she was leaving, he visited her to see her off. She would rather stay with him, so he robbed a wedding gown for her and a wedding suite for himself. They drove to a church, he asked her to pray for the life she wants. When she was praying, he left for revenge for his brother and died on the street.
I told the story with tears to my kids, ten years old Dingwen uttered one word: poverty. Seven years old Dingyan kept asking questions. mom, why can't they stay together? Because he had to fight, and he knew he might not have tomorrow. Why can't he find a job and not fight? His loyalty to his peers and his experience made it hard to move out of the gang. He was also too poor to start a new life. Can her parents help him? Even if they helped him, it is just one poor kid getting reduced from poverty, how about other thousands of poor people? He finally got quiet for a while, before falling asleep he said, " This is so sad, mom."
It is really sad. Especially when a very cute and loving couple had to be separated by reality, the cruelty and pain are unbearable. it is also sad for anyone to look at it. We all know that some poor people live off garbage, did we pay any attention to them? We try to wipe that image A.S.A.P. It is too painful to look at poverty.
We can plan for the future, we can build a long term goal and work toward it with a daily schedule, while there are a group of people, who cannot imagine any day after today; to whom, love is luxury, how they can sustain that relationship? They are too poor to think of tomorrow, let alone dream and love.
This might be the case for any poor in any country, including the USA. they have no motivation to live on a so-called more meaningful life, they don't even know what it is. they are not prepared by both family and society to live differently, they have to live based on day to day basis, future to them is just another yesterday.
If they are not prepared to change, and if we feel painful to look at them, who will change the situation? If the situation remains the same, and after we know the existence of poverty, how can we continue enjoying what we have without guilty? Why some people own so much and others have so little? Don't assume the poor are poor because they did not work hard. Don't assume the rich are rich because they deserve it. Millions of people suffer poverty every second, it is hard to convince me that millions of human beings are lazy.
There must be solutions. One of them must be education-related. Imagine if all education is free, K-12 and higher. The poor and the rich can equally enjoy the beautiful, spacious, and resourceful campus, and breathe freely the charm and power of knowledge and innovation. I am starting to get excited, I believe free education is one of the many solutions to help reduce poverty. Can we eliminate poverty? I want to while knowing it might be hard. Education, however, can lift poverty, can change people's mindsets, and can bring the world hope.
